There is conventionally a system where a plurality of vehicles such as dump trucks transporting mineral ore excavated from strip mines are controlled to operate unattended in a manner preventing interference between the vehicles. Specifically, a control station for monitoring the movement of multiple vehicles is provided along with radio communication means for allowing communication between the control station and each of the multiple vehicles, the vehicles exchanging information with the control station for control purposes.
For example, there has been proposed a vehicle monitoring apparatus whereby the current position of each of the vehicles involved is transmitted to the control station at predetermined time intervals or at intervals of a predetermined distance traveled. Given the vehicle positions and the relation therebetween, the control station transmits to the vehicles instructions to continue traveling, to decelerate, to stop, etc., so that the vehicle will not interfere with one another. Vehicles located close to each other exchange their position information by means of radio communication to avoid mutual interference (e.g., see Patent Literature 1).
Also proposed are a system and a method for managing resources having a plurality of entry points. There are regions surrounding the intersections of transport roads and the work areas for loading, soil dumping, or other works. The vehicles approaching the regions notify the control station of their approach. Given the notifications, the control station determines which of the vehicles should be given priority, and issues an instruction such that the vehicle with priority should be allowed to enter the regions while the rest of the vehicles are waiting in line, whereby interference between the vehicles is avoided (e.g., see Patent Literature 2).